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Coffee Company Ready To Grind Down Employee Work Hours Due to Obamacare?

According to a company employee, Dutch Bros., the largest privately held drive-through coffee company with over 200 locations throughout 7 western states, is limiting the hours of their corporate staff in order to comply with Obamacare mandates.

In tallying up the casualties in the Obamacare war on jobs, FreedomWorks set up a tip line of sorts, at Brokenpromises@FreedomWorks.org. The Broken Promises line yielded a response from a Dutch Bros. employee stating that the company had announced a reduction in work hours for all corporate employees to 29 hours per week - management excluded.

I was able to confirm the individual is indeed an employee at Dutch Bros.

Here was his initial statement:

The fastest growing drive-thru coffee company in the country, Dutch Bros. http://dutchbros.com/, reduced the hours of all of their corporate employees to 29 hours per week – excluding management – in order to comply with the Obamacare mandates. Since the mandates were pushed back, the company is still holding to the 29 hour work-week.

Some Dutch Bros. locations are franchised owned, but the employee states that "all corporate owned locations are now under this policy."

"It was handled during location based employee meetings by managers with their employees," he added.

Despite several attempts to reach out to the company, a "PR Specialist" I was put in contact with refused to return messages.

A separate representative in the customer relations department finally provided a statement late last week. The company delivered what essentially amounts to a 'no comment.'

We appreciate your interest in Dutch Bros. Coffee. I have been in contact with our Human Resources Team and have received the conclusion that the information that you are requesting is information that we are not disclosing to anyone.

Rather than deny that employee hours were cut, or refute that the Obamacare mandates had anything to do with personnel decisions, Dutch Bros. has decided not to disclose the information?

If the company never made a move to slash the hours of their staff, it would have been a relatively simple denial. Additionally, not disclosing the information to anyone seems to indicate that Dutch Bros. doesn't want to create waves by saying the move was designed to circumvent Obamacare mandates.

A 2009 company profile in Oregon Business indicates that Dutch Bros. employed over 1,500 employees. Since then, the company's franchises have expanded from 135 to over 200, with the number of employees presumably expanding as well. It's not clear how many corporate employees this move would effect, however.

This was written to my senator in TX, John Cornyn: Patriots keep up the pressure!
“Congress is getting a PASS on Obamacare, Unions are getting a pass on Obamacare while WE the PEOPLE get the shaft. PLEASE sign (back on) to Mike Lee’s and Ted Cruz’s efforts to Defund this job killing and bankrupting law. Please Defund Obamacare.”

I've been following the national health care reform debate for nearly 20 years, and you know what? It turns out to be very simple. Cut through all the bureaucratic jargon and mind-numbing acronyms, and there are only two basic ideas in health policy: HMOs and HSAs. That's it.

Democracy and Power 101: Government is powerThe essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.-James Madison, Speech in the Virginia State Convention of 1829-1830“Citizenship” and President Obama's Scheme to Force His AgendaPresident Obama, in his recent convention speech, intentionally stressed “citizenship.” The president said:

If Barack Obama's campaign slogan is "It could have been worse," Mitt Romney's seems to be "It won't be as bad." Mitt Romney's comment on Meet the Press about maintaining 'guaranteed issue' in his 'repeal and replace' health plan means there will be no repealing and far less replacing.

Is Mitt Romney weaseling out on us?
Over the weekend, the former Massachusetts governor offered some comments on ObamaCare that are causing some folks to question how strongly the GOP presidential nominee remains committed to full repeal of the president's unpopular health care law.

By a faction (interest group), I understand a number of citizens, whether amounting to a majority or a minority of the whole, who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adversed to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community. - James Madison – Federalist 10

Allen West dropped by the Blogger Hangout at the RNC Convention on August 30, and was very gracious with his time. On his legislative agenda for 2013, he discussed tax reform and regulatory reform as a means to unleash small business success. He took a quick little shot at Harry Reid too, challenging him to pass the job creating legislation that has been blocked from a full vote at the Senate. I asked him about Sen. McCain's Convention remarks about the current state of the Middle East.

The themes that were developed by the GOP yesterday, which I blogged about here, were out in full force again today. So far, every single speaker has told a story of one of their family members (or, in many cases, themselves) that emigrated to the United States to find freedom and opportunity. It seems to have gone viral - even my cab driver after the event was a very proud new US citizen who hails originally from Haiti.

Democracy and Power 114 What is the detriment of the American public? The fact that the federal government is controlled by predatory special-interest groups and complicit politicians. Special-interest groups give enormous campaign contributions to politicians, and, in return, special-interest groups receive gigantic benefits. The political machinations making ObamaCare are immoral examples of predatory special-interest groups (government employee unions) and complicit politicians (the Obama-Biden Administration) at work.